Electric charge

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Electric charge is the physical property of matter that

causes it to experience a force when close to other
electrically charged matter. There are two types of
electric charges, called positive and negative. Positively
charged substances are repelled from other positively
charged substances, but attracted to negatively charged
substances; negatively charged substances are repelled
from negative and attracted to positive. An object will
be negatively charged if it has an excess of electrons,
and will otherwise be positively charged or uncharged.
The SI derived unit of electric charge is the coulomb
(C), although in electrical engineering it is also common
to use the ampere-hour (Ah), and in chemistry it is
common to use the elementary charge (e) as a unit. The Electric field of a positive and a negative point
symbol Q is often used to denote a charge. The study of charge.
how charged substances interact is classical
electrodynamics, which is accurate insofar as quantum effects can be ignored.

The electric charge is a fundamental conserved property of some subatomic particles, which determines their
electromagnetic interaction. Electrically charged matter is influenced by, and produces, electromagnetic fields.
The interaction between a moving charge and an electromagnetic field is the source of the electromagnetic force,
which is one of the four fundamental forces (See also: magnetic field).

Twentieth-century experiments demonstrated that electric charge is quantized; that is, it comes in integer
multiples of individual small units called the elementary charge, e, approximately equal to
1.602 × 10−19 coulombs (except for particles called quarks, which have charges that are integer multiples of
e/3). The proton has a charge of e, and the electron has a charge of −e. The study of charged particles, and how
their interactions are mediated by photons, is quantum electrodynamics.

Contents
1 Overview
2 History
3 Static electricity and electric current
3.1 Electrification by friction
4 Properties
5 Conservation of electric charge
6 See also
7 References
8 External links

Overview
 Charge is the fundamental property of forms of matter that
exhibit electrostatic attraction or repulsion in the presence of
other matter. Electric charge is a characteristic property of many
subatomic particles. The charges of free-standing particles are
integer multiples of the elementary charge e; we say that electric
charge is quantized. Michael Faraday, in his electrolysis
experiments, was the first to note the discrete nature of electric
charge. Robert Millikan's oil-drop experiment demonstrated this
fact directly, and measured the elementary charge.

By convention, the charge of an electron is −1, while that of a

Diagram showing field lines and
equipotentials around an electron, a
negatively charged particle. In an
electrically neutral atom, the number of
electrons is equal to the number of protons
(which are positively charged), resulting in
a net zero overall charge
proton is +1. Charged particles whose charges have the same
sign repel one another, and particles whose charges have
different signs attract. Coulomb's law quantifies the electrostatic
force between two particles by asserting that the force is
proportional to the product of their charges, and inversely
proportional to the square of the distance between them.
The charge of an antiparticle equals that of the corresponding
particle, but with opposite sign. Quarks have fractional charges
of either −1⁄3 or +2⁄3, but free-standing quarks have never been
observed (the theoretical reason for this fact is asymptotic
freedom).

The electric charge of a macroscopic object is the sum of the electric charges of the particles that make it up.
This charge is often small, because matter is made of atoms, and atoms typically have equal numbers of protons
and electrons, in which case their charges cancel out, yielding a net charge of zero, thus making the atom neutral.

An ion is an atom (or group of atoms) that has lost one or more electrons, giving it a net positive charge
(cation), or that has gained one or more electrons, giving it a net negative charge (anion). Monatomic ions are
formed from single atoms, while polyatomic ions are formed from two or more atoms that have been bonded
together, in each case yielding an ion with a positive or negative net charge.

During the formation of macroscopic

objects, usually the constituent atoms
and ions will combine in such a manner
that they form structures composed of
neutral ionic compounds electrically
bound to neutral atoms. Thus
macroscopic objects tend toward
being neutral overall, but macroscopic
objects are rarely perfectly net neutral.

There are times when macroscopic

objects contain ions distributed
throughout the material, rigidly bound Electric field induced by a positive electric charge (left) and a field
induced by a negative electric charge (right).
in place, giving an overall net positive
or negative charge to the object. Also,
macroscopic objects made of conductive elements, can more or less easily (depending on the element) take on
or give off electrons, and then maintain a net negative or positive charge indefinitely. When the net electric
charge of an object is non-zero and motionless, the phenomenon is known as static electricity. This can easily be
produced by rubbing two dissimilar materials together, such as rubbing amber with fur or glass with silk. In this
way non-conductive materials can be charged to a significant degree, either positively or negatively. Charge
taken from one material is moved to the other material, leaving an opposite charge of the same magnitude
behind. The law of conservation of charge always applies, giving the object from which a negative charge has
been taken a positive charge of the same magnitude, and vice-versa.

Even when an object's net charge is zero, charge can be distributed non-uniformly in the object (e.g., due to an
external electromagnetic field, or bound polar molecules). In such cases the object is said to be polarized. The
charge due to polarization is known as bound charge, while charge on an object produced by electrons gained
or lost from outside the object is called free charge. The motion of electrons in conductive metals in a specific
direction is known as electric current. 6.242 × 1018 e (e is the charge of a proton). Hence, the charge of an
electron is approximately −1.602 × 10−19 C. The coulomb is defined as the quantity of charge that has passed
through the cross section of an electrical conductor carrying one ampere within one second. The symbol Q is
often used to denote a quantity of electricity or charge. The quantity of electric charge can be directly measured
with an electrometer, or indirectly measured with a ballistic galvanometer.

After finding the quantized character of charge, in 1891 George Stoney proposed the unit 'electron' for this
fundamental unit of electrical charge. This was before the discovery of the particle by J.J. Thomson in 1897. The
unit is today treated as nameless, referred to as "elementary charge", "fundamental unit of charge", or simply as
"e". A measure of charge should be a multiple of the elementary charge e, even if at large scales, charge seems
to behave as a real quantity. In some contexts it is meaningful to speak of fractions of a charge; for example in
the charging of a capacitor, or in the fractional quantum Hall effect.

History
As reported by the ancient Greek philosopher Thales of Miletus
around 600 BC, charge (or electricity) could be accumulated by
rubbing fur on various substances, such as amber. The Greeks noted
that the charged amber buttons could attract light objects such as hair.
They also noted that if they rubbed the amber for long enough, they
could even get an electric spark to jump. This property derives from
the triboelectric effect.

In 1600, the English scientist William Gilbert returned to the subject in

De Magnete, and coined the New Latin word electricus from
ηλεκτρον (elektron), the Greek word for "amber", which soon gave
rise to the English words "electric" and "electricity." He was followed
in 1660 by Otto von Guericke, who invented what was probably the
first electrostatic generator. Other European pioneers were Robert
Boyle, who in 1675 stated that electric attraction and repulsion can
act across a vacuum; Stephen Gray, who in 1729 classified materials
as conductors and insulators; and C. F. du Fay, who proposed in Coulomb's torsion balance
[1]
1733 that electricity comes in two varieties that cancel each other,
and expressed this in terms of a two-fluid theory. When glass was rubbed with silk, du Fay said that the glass
was charged with vitreous electricity, and, when amber was rubbed with fur, the amber was said to be
charged with resinous electricity. In 1839, Michael Faraday showed that the apparent division between static
electricity, current electricity, and bioelectricity was incorrect, and all were a consequence of the behavior of a
single kind of electricity appearing in opposite polarities. It is arbitrary which polarity is called positive and which
is called negative. Positive charge can be defined as the charge left on a glass rod after being rubbed with silk.[2]
One of the foremost experts on electricity in the 18th century was Benjamin Franklin, who argued in favour of a
one-fluid theory of electricity. Franklin imagined electricity as being a type of invisible fluid present in all matter;
for example, he believed that it was the glass in a Leyden jar that held the accumulated charge. He posited that
rubbing insulating surfaces together caused this fluid to change location, and that a flow of this fluid constitutes an
electric current. He also posited that when matter contained too little of the fluid it was "negatively" charged, and
when it had an excess it was "positively" charged. For a reason that was not recorded, he identified the term
"positive" with vitreous electricity and "negative" with resinous electricity. William Watson arrived at the same
explanation at about the same time.

Static electricity and electric current

Static electricity and electric current are two separate phenomena, both involving electric charge, and may occur
simultaneously in the same object. Static electricity is a reference to the electric charge of an object and the
related electrostatic discharge when two objects are brought together that are not at equilibrium. An electrostatic
discharge creates a change in the charge of each of the two objects. In contrast, electric current is the flow of
electric charge through an object, which produces no net loss or gain of electric charge.

Electrification by friction

Further information: triboelectric effect

Let a piece of glass and a piece of resin, neither of which exhibiting any electrical properties, be rubbed together
and left with the rubbed surfaces in contact. They will still exhibit no electrical properties. Let them be separated.
They will now attract each other.

If a second piece of glass be rubbed with a second piece of resin, and if the piece be then separated and
suspended in the neighbourhood of the former pieces of glass and resin, it may be observed:

1. that the two pieces of glass repel each other.

2. that each piece of glass attracts each piece of resin.
3. that the two pieces of resin repel each other.

These phenomena of attraction and repulsion are called electrical phenomena, and the bodies that exhibit them
are said to be 'electrified', or to be 'charged with electricity'.

Bodies may be electrified in many other ways, as well as by friction.

The electrical properties of the two pieces of glass are similar to each other but opposite to those of the two
pieces of resin: The glass attracts what the resin repels and repels what the resin attracts.

If a body electrified in any manner whatsoever behaves as the glass does, that is, if it repels the glass and attracts
the resin, the body is said to be 'vitreously' electrified, and if it attracts the glass and repels the resin it is said to
be 'resinously' electrified. All electrified bodies are found to be either vitreously or resinously electrified.

It is the established convention of the scientific community to define the vitreous electrification as positive, and
the resinous electrification as negative. The exactly opposite properties of the two kinds of electrification justify
our indicating them by opposite signs, but the application of the positive sign to one rather than to the other kind
must be considered as a matter of arbitrary convention, just as it is a matter of convention in mathematical
diagram to reckon positive distances towards the right hand.
No force, either of attraction or of repulsion, can be observed between an electrified body and a body not
electrified.[3]

Actually, all bodies are electrified, but may appear not to be so by the relative similar charge of neighboring
objects in the environment. An object further electrified + or - creates an equivalent or opposite charge by
default in neighboring objects, until those charges can equalize. The effects of attraction can be observed in high-
voltage experiments, while lower voltage effects are merely weaker and therefore less obvious. The attraction
and repulsion forces are codified by Coulomb's Law (attraction falls off at the square of the distance, which has
a corrolary for acceleration in a gravitational field, suggesting that gravitation may be merely electrostatic
phenomenon between relatively weak charges in terms of scale). See also the Casmir effect.

We now know that the Franklin/Watson model was fundamentally correct. There is only one kind of electrical
charge, and only one variable is required to keep track of the amount of charge.[4] On the other hand, just
knowing the charge is not a complete description of the situation. Matter is composed of several kinds of
electrically charged particles, and these particles have many properties, not just charge.

The most common charge carriers are the positively charged proton and the negatively charged electron. The
movement of any of these charged particles constitutes an electric current. In many situations, it suffices to speak
of the conventional current without regard to whether it is carried by positive charges moving in the direction
of the conventional current and/or by negative charges moving in the opposite direction. This macroscopic
viewpoint is an approximation that simplifies electromagnetic concepts and calculations.

At the opposite extreme, if one looks at the microscopic situation, one sees there are many ways of carrying an
electric current, including: a flow of electrons; a flow of electron "holes" that act like positive particles; and both
negative and positive particles (ions or other charged particles) flowing in opposite directions in an electrolytic
solution or a plasma.

Beware that, in the common and important case of metallic wires, the direction of the conventional current is
opposite to the drift velocity of the actual charge carriers, i.e., the electrons. This is a source of confusion for
beginners.

Properties
Aside
from the Flavour in particle physics
Flavour quantum numbers:

Isospin: I or I3
Charm: C
Strangeness: S
Topness: T
Bottomness: B′

Related quantum numbers:

Baryon number: B
Lepton number: L
Weak isospin: T or T3
Electric charge: Q
X-charge: X
 Combinations:

Hypercharge: Y
Y = (B + S + C + B′ + T)
Y = 2 (Q − I3)
Weak hypercharge: YW
YW = 2 (Q − T3)
X + 2YW = 5 (B − L)

Flavour mixing

CKM matrix
PMNS matrix
Flavour complementarity

This box:
view · talk · edit (//en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Template:Flavour_quantum_numbers&action=edit)

properties described in articles about electromagnetism, charge is a relativistic invariant. This means that any
particle that has charge Q, no matter how fast it goes, always has charge Q. This property has been
experimentally verified by showing that the charge of one helium nucleus (two protons and two neutrons bound
together in a nucleus and moving around at high speeds) is the same as two deuterium nuclei (one proton and
one neutron bound together, but moving much more slowly than they would if they were in a helium
nucleus).[citation needed]

Conservation of electric charge

Main article: Charge conservation

The total electric charge of an isolated system remains constant regardless of changes within the system itself.
This law is inherent to all processes known to physics and can be derived in a local form from gauge invariance
of the wave function. The conservation of charge results in the charge-current continuity equation. More
generally, the net change in charge density ρ within a volume of integration V is equal to the area integral over the
current density J through the closed surface S = ∂V, which is in turn equal to the net current I:

Thus, the conservation of electric charge, as expressed by the continuity equation, gives the result:

The charge transferred between times and is obtained by integrating both sides:
where I is the net outward current through a closed surface and Q is the electric charge contained within the
volume defined by the surface.

See also
Current density
Quantity of electricity
SI electromagnetism units

References
1. ^ Two Kinds of Electrical Fluid: Vitreous and Resinous - 1733
(http://www.sparkmuseum.com/BOOK_DUFAY.HTM)
2. ^ Electromagnetic Fields (2nd Edition), Roald K. Wangsness, Wiley, 1986. ISBN 0-471-81186-6 (intermediate
level textbook)
3. ^ James Clerk Maxwell A Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism, pp. 32-33, Dover Publications Inc., 1954
ASIN: B000HFDK0K, 3rd ed. of 1891
4. ^ One Kind of Charge (http://www.av8n.com/physics/one-kind-of-charge.htm)

External links
How fast does a charge decay? (http://www.ce-mag.com/archive/2000/marapril/mrstatic.html)
Science Aid: Electrostatic charge (http://www.scienceaid.co.uk/physics/electricity/charge.html) Easy-to-
understand page on electrostatic charge.
History of the electrical units. (http://seaus.free.fr/spip.php?article964)

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Electric_charge&oldid=572454021"

Categories: Electrostatics Electricity Physical quantities Chemical properties Conservation laws
Electromagnetism Particle physics flavour quantum number Spintronics Electric charge

This page was last modified on 11 September 2013 at 07:02.

Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License; additional terms may
apply. By using this site, you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy.
Wikipedia® is a registered trademark of the Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., a non-profit organization.